| |
Home | |
|
|||||
| |
|
Humor | |
Photo Album | ||||
|
|
|
||
|
Honeywell
Global
Kick Off "It is pretty nice attending your second Global Kick Off meeting especially if you don't have to get fired to do it. " |
Sunday 15th Jan 2007 |
| I'm kind of late writing this one.
I
have been busy and strangely enough I have not been traveling as much.
I changed jobs in November.
I have been with Novell for about 15 years and I have had maybe 16
jobs. This year I'm a Global Strategic Partner Executive. I have a number of partners the most important of them is Honeywell. We have been working on a partnership around Logical and Physical Security . We invited them to attend our Global Kick Off in Paris and they invited us to attend their Security Kick off in Orlando. The bad news is their kick off starts on Sunday and goes through a Novell company holiday. The good news is it is in Orlando and the same storm that is pulling cold wet air down into Fort Worth is pulling warm dry air into Florida. The temperature in Dallas is 29º with lots of ice and a little snow, while it's a very toasty 86º in Orlando. They also have a better list of events then I am use to:
This place in Orlando only rents Harley's so while I get the same look, their options are limited. They have to either rent me a Harley or not let me ride. It was a close call but since I was one of 24 riders and since Honeywell does this every year they decide that the insurance should cover anything stupid I might do to their bike. I got the Electra Glide Classic because I was the first one to respond to the email. Honeywell sent me a note that stated that there was a limited number of bikes so the faster you responded the more likely you were to get the one we wanted. I responded in less than 30 seconds . My flight out on Sunday is delayed. I was suppose to leave at seven in the morning but didn't get out until almost three thirty in the afternoon which put me in Orlando around seven that night.. I made it to the Welcome dinner, got introduced around to a few dozen people then headed off to the room around midnight. Breakfast started at 6:30 am and the main session started promptly at 8:00 in the morning. I felt very at home. This could have been a Novell sales meeting, except for the reference to the price of copper wire. The speakers talked about the "Best Sales force in the world." "Smartest people" "Hardest workers." Novell's culture is very much like Honeywell's so it wasn't too strange. The only difference was when Ben Cornett, the President of Honeywell's Security Group, told a story. It was so compelling and powerful that I wasn't sure it was true. The people that I ask about it swear that it was. Ben tells us that the night before at the reception he overheard one of the sales guys saying that he missed making his number. This gentleman went on to say that he thought that since he had done a good job over the years he deserved the money the company gave him. He then said that either way it didn't matter all that much. The surprising part is that the guy was talking to one of the top sales guys in Honeywell and rather than correct him the top performer said, "Don't let it bother you. They probably set your quota too high." I don't know if I believe it, since it was a little to perfect. I mean it is very believable. I have heard guys say everything that these guys supposedly said but not all of it at one time. I also find it hard to believe that the top sales guy would respond that way and also would be so clueless that he would miss that Ben the President was standing within earshot when he said it. It was a great story though and I love a good story. We finish up at around  11:30 am and are off to our event. I'm the last one on the
bus. We head over to the rental place. It takes
awhile to process everyone but we get our paperwork and head
out to the bikes. I'm standing behind my bike and get a bit
of a scare when they ask the guy next to me, "Have you been checked
out?" I'm thinking, "This could be embarrassing what if they give me a
test and I can't pass it." It is my turn, the guy hands me the key to the bike
adding, "If you lose this key it will cost you $40." I'm
thinking, "Damn that is a pretty expensive key." I look at the
key and then look at the bike. The guy sees the puzzled look on my
face and says, "You ever ride a Harley before?" I sheepishly answer, "no." He shakes his head looks over the insurance form and says."You don't need the key. You just move this big block to the "on" position and then it's just like any other motorcycle. I start it up just to make sure that I can, then twist the throttle to see if I'm going to need earplugs. I quickly turn it off so I don't embarrass myself too much. We have eight guys riding shotgun on us. They give us the safety briefing. One of them will ride in the lead and the other will ride trail. We are not to speed and if we miss a light we should relax and catch up as best we can without violating any laws.  We
will ride in a "Stagger formation" They explain that this
will keep the "Four Wheelers" from cutting in between us.
"Four Wheelers!" I have never heard cars referred to
as "Four Wheelers" before and they say it the same way I use to say
"Lieutenant " when I was a Platoon Sergent in the Army. They give us a few hand signals and one foot signal. The foot signal is in case there is something in the road that we should watch out for. The example he gives us is an "Alligator." He says that if he sees an Alligator in the road he will raise one finger meaning that we should move into single file behind him and he will point to the Alligator with his foot. He stresses that if we see this signal we should immediately move behind him since it can be really dangerous to hit an Alligator at 50 mph. He will raise two fingers his index and his pinkie when he wants us to move back into the staggered formation. He then goes over the rest of this signals. I'm not sure I remember them all since I am still thinking about hitting an Alligator at 50 mph. I think they are:
It was a great ride but when I called Cheryl it might have been a mistake to tell her that I got a little sunburn. This was bad for a couple of reasons; She is a Mom so she believes that no one should go outside without slathering on a ton of sunscreen. In the summer our kids always smell like coconuts and are a little greasy. More importantly she has been stuck in the house alone for three days with the kids. It was a holiday weekend and it looked like school might be closed due to ice the next day. I am normally a pretty smart guy but here I am complaining about the unseasonably warm 86º weather to my wife, who has been trapped in our ice covered house with two cabin fevered kids. Not my smartest move. I think she might have signaled that I should move back into staggered formation using both of her hands after she hung up. |
| Symbiotisches Veröffentlichen GmbH | Back to Top |
